The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1887-12-29
A GOLD MINERS STORIES.
"Reminiscences Of Che Days of -. and
4 ftcrWart,.

renamed. On Of hundreds but five or six
OF the most ! 'l.asi AND ''shiftlcss" miners
remained working for grub and whisky, -
and satisfied vita I couple of dollars per dav
at rocking" One day ono OF these con-
Guided to try & slim streak Of gravel which
showed itself uitC!' several feet of ''hQrd
PAM iii tho bank IL serted by its former
workers. lizard l::l" il; red dirt III lo.tt as
hard as SIN burAci b.t'!1 or the adobe of the
Mexican. W.llC.l l. frequently found Wing
from ton to one hundred f2rt above the gold
bearing gravel q tie California dead river"
channels, and dead river" channel means Il
deposit or streak pf 1".!Itl. smoothly washed
pebble and hoT'l2.' showing tho course
OF the river 81 son2 remote geological
l'oi'lod; "-',t, siren, s. enough, nearly
al tlc..1 dead ..v,r" channels IN
California run at III. u ;-:lr oa and across the
present live ones, Ws.-'I. rs You may nat
urally infer, means live i'l.!aiti.r WatC. and
wet gravel underneath. Hard p.n' l.,s so
called by the miners because it was; SO hard
to wash-lt was almost the attempt to soak
brlckbats to q mud consistency. Our relic
tried pan from the slim gravel streak 1t
yielded three cents He 'coyotecln in little
further. The gravel streak grew thicker 1t
yielded ten cents more The ledge pitched
inward. Over him was the steep side
or one of the river hills 800 feet
nigh. 1t was another Old river chan
mel and gave its pOSsessor after two
years working over S2OU.W Its permanent
possesSor was not the ''relc" who found it,
1t was a more cunning and far sighted man
from Massachusetts who bought the claim
for Il few hundred dollars, for the idiot val
ued the present pottaSe of q barrel of whisky
Tar more than the financial possibilities,
which his sober senses would have told him
We're under the Indian Bar hill Gold min
ing means digging, lifting rocks and pack
ing wet and heavy lumber in the shape of
slulces like any other ''navvys' work Gold
Washing IS simply the sloveling Of dirt into
an inclined trough full of running water
The water does nearly all the work It runs
OF the stones and sands while the heavier
gold falls to the bottom Of the sluice or
trough ana brings up against the cleats
mailed at the bottom, mixed with Il quantity
OF black sand. Look at the street cutters after
heavy ram and you see there illustrated
IN" whole gold washing principle. The tacks,
pms, buttons, rusty nails and other bits of
metal caught i'll the creyiccs of the paving
stones represent gold as the soil is washed
away from 1t. Said miner to me during
my llrSt weeks mining experience i'll 1859
There's 10 reasoning as to the whereabouts
of tho darnci stuff by analogy The lkelest
looking places will fail, and after all gold is
about where you find it,
So | found it as he represented.
Inc richest deposit might be two feet I'M
foreground. 1t might be 200 It may as in
Springfield Flat, lay where the water after
reaching certain depth comes into the
shaft SO fast that the expense Of pumping it
out forblds all risk of capital Vet the gold
Is there, hidden in crevices amid a tumble of
immense powders big as small houses, piled
one atop the other to the depth before men
toned, and these same powders, though
coiored red by long contact with the
red earth in which for AGES they
have been buried, are all marble, as You may
find on chipping off 4 bit, when You will see
the snowy Whteness Of the stone revealed be
meath That is on tho '.Bovldcr range" q
strange streak Of rock running many miles
through southern California; from a quarter
to half u mile in width, and all these rocks.
great and small, piled as they are on each
other beneath the soil, arc water washed and
worn into varied and fantastic forms, as if
by the action upon them of surf or water
fall. y singular formation is the Bowder
range, for it has no secure bottom anl thcr1,
have been cases of shaft bottoms falling
out at the depth Of sixty or seventy
feet and showing running water beneath. On
this range, at a camp in Calayeras comfy.
the miners for years ran their mud and stone
from the sluces mouth into a crack in the
earth. 1t never filled up The gurglinr of
running water could be heard in it. During
ono summer, while waiting for water lone
third of our time in the mines wa; Dosscd in
this way. the "boys" concluded to explore
this mysterious UNDERGROUND REGION. They
built a small boat for the purpose. lowered il
down. and Johnny Ward who had vol,,n
tecrcd to navigate this UNDERGROUND rive
after it. He did 60 . little way- rs far rs he
dared. but the river disanpearcd a,pid low
overhanginr rocks and darkness. and Johnny
was hauled up again and tic boat left
to rot I have seen the heaviest erold
taken from a sort of .stop DRESSING, of
LIGHT soil several feet from inc jc,l,,c
Or the hanks of tbc T,oJ,,,,no r;vnr
| have after washinr a nonful of s,,ch dirt
seen thousand spccks of fine ..Gour qold~
lvinr on IFS bottom 4 microscono would
show: thousands moro md tbc wholo nros-
ncct ,vonldn-t yagh half 4, cont in v,lua
Tb;s ..no,r uold,, sncms -. lirbt 81. ,bo
,tomi. feathers Of tho hutter1v.s vino r. is
,,,+nrs1 ,,ul1nr;zad ,ri,t ,c,f cro,nl ~ now
,Io,. &c. roiod ,vo on,1 ,,,-o. o,non,r TIA r;,or
ho,,llo,.. fo,. ,oun+1ocs cnr+,,;os--tboco howl
IN, ,,tioh ,,,,.in,r IA folI frosho+. of ~
Stanis,anc n,I rnnhnn. ,vo con 1 boor ,t
n;aht ,attlina aloner thc riyar III ohovc